THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Charles Chaplin
Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie,
Henry Daniell, Reginald Gardiner, Chester Conklin
Chaplin's controversial spoof on Hitler, released at a time when a lot of people no longer considered Hitler all that funny. The story revolves around a double-edged joke - the fictitious resemblance between a maniacal dictator and a shell-shocked Jewish barber, and the ironic real-life resemblance between Chaplin's screen character and Hitler. Romantic, sentimental, and at times extremely naive. (Chaplin wrote later that if he had known what was going on in the concentration camps, he never could have made the picture.) But it's vintage Chaplin. Some highlights: Chaplin as the dictator, toying with a giant globe. Chaplin as the barber, shaving a customer to classical music. And the performances of Henry Daniell and Jack Oakie as thinly disguised stand-ins for Goebbels and Mussolini. Chaplin's first all-sound film, and the last time he played a character resembling the Little Tramp. Seventy years later, it still has the power to amuse and provoke.
